4.29.2010

The glass-block facade of the Maison de Verre, which has attained cult status.

"No house in France better reflects the magical promise of 20th-century architecture than the Maison de Verre. Tucked behind the solemn porte-cochere of a traditional French residence on Rue Saint-Guillaume, a quiet street in a wealthy Left Bank neighborhood, the 1932 house designed by Pierre Chareau challenges our assumptions about the nature of Modernism. For architects it represents the road not taken: a lyrical machine whose theatricality is the antithesis of the dry functionalist aesthetic that reigned through much of the 20th century." -- The New York Times

4.26.2010

Little by little, bit by bit. I'm not a speed demon, okay? The painting is done, the room is edited, and now I'm looking for things that will coax my 18th century style into the 21st. You can't jump three centuries overnight, you know. Besides, I've learned it's smarter to take time deliberating so I can splurge on as much quality as I can afford, rather than replace things I never wanted in the first place. Then I go for it. But when I go for it I've got to be sure it's right because you can't return custom orders.

Here's what I've done so far and here's where I'm headed. I used to love pretty Victorian clutter, I still like looking at it in other people's homes, but now all I want in mine is space and light. So I began by stripping the room. The first thing to go was a large china cabinet on the far wall. It crowded the room, swallowed the light and wasn't terribly useful. Then I rolled up the oriental rug (is it PC to call it that these days?) No more bright red and blue, no more busy pattern. The bookcases on the left were brought in from the living room because I wanted to expand the dining room's usefulness. I've got more books so I'm looking for something tall but open to avoid blocking the light. I'm also looking for a new pendant light, something with strong clean lines. The chairs will be recovered. What about painting them black and reupholstering with black horsehair? Horsehair! Wow! Does anyone make a synthetic horsehair? I'm also debating whether to cut open the wall on the right to add another set of French doors. S'pose that's enough here?

It better be. If you look through the far door, you'll see another room, piled high with displaced stuff from the rest of the house. I've got big plans there too. I am about to get *sigh* a studio. And life is good.

From the sublime to the ridiculously inexpensive, there are bookcases. Industrial bookcases such as those designed in 1932 by Pierre Chareau for Maison de Verre, a fabulous house with a fabulous bookcase. Although the house I plan to bookcase is but a circa '74 trailer, I still intend to live fabulous. Here are some of my options.

Via CurbedLA we've come across this "one-of-a-kind deconstructed modernist" house in the heart of Los Feliz on the market for $869,000. This unique 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom converted loft space is nestled ideally in the entrance of Griffith Park, and features soaring vaulted ceilings, floor to ceiling glass windows, open loft space, and and an expansive wood paneled library in the upstairs mezzanine. This 2,739 sq. foot home was built in 1949, and is one of the more affordable properties we've seen in this neighborhood. View the rest of the listing here.

Rare opportunity to purchase this one-of-a-kind de-constructed modernist transformation of a traditional home into a ~Loft/House~ by the entry to Griffith Park. Nothing of the placid exterior prepares the visitor for the soaring ceilings and exploded volumes within. Open loft spaces inter-penetrate above the retained floor plan in a ceiling-less suspension of all conventional expectations of domestic organization. A fluid dining/entertainment/gallery room lit by custom metal-framed skylights extends into the rear yard, where glass sliders expose varied plantings. With over 2700 square feet per assessor, and additional unpermitted library space in the mezzanine above, when is architecture this cutting-edge available in a prime neighborhood so affordably? Two bedrooms and baths retain conventional privacy; bring your engineer to confirm the unique structural reinforcement of the existing framing & your sense of adventure in making this breathtaking experiment work for you.

my friend went to see this yesterday afternoon and said the house was an absolute wreck. serious water damage to the floors and around the skylights, roof in need of replacement, floors in need of replacement, bad layout, broken plumbing fixtures, lots of obvious code violations. apparently the main wall down the center of the house (the one with the fireplace) was a shear wall, but had all of the shear connections cut off. he said the place was in need of a thorough structural upgrade. apparently the owner, or whoever did the remodel, was a total dipshit.

additionally, the site apparently is backed up to a concrete-covered hillside, so there is very little usable outdoor space.

4.06.2010

You know you want them. They're just so sexy, so seductive. And you can't get enough, can you? Yep, for all you voyeurs lurking out there who need constant stimulation. Interior design sites! Hey, I can't get enough either. Well, here are some of the hottest.

Photographer Todd Selby was ­shooting the likes of Dolly ­Parton and Tom Wolfe at home for ­magazines like Vogue when the idea for a blog emerged. "I loved seeing how these ­creative people lived. I wanted to tell a story about who they are through their things," he says. So he ­began photographing the homes of friends. Turns out he's rather well connected – these include Michael Stipe, Helena ­Christensen and Peaches Geldof, alongside lesser known creative types. "I hope the blog ­encourages you to be yourself," he says. (The Selby Is In Your Place is ­published in April by Abrams, at £22.50.)

Swede Emma Fexeus blogs about Scandinavian design in all its pared-down glory. She features elegant photography of mouthwatering houses, as well as hot-off-the-press postings on the latest furniture and accessories. Fexeus, a self-­confessed country girl, has a particular ­penchant for "vintage, inherited or flea market furniture".

Sustainable ideas – from ­apple crate shelves to sofas made from ­shipping pallets – grace the pages of this blog. "People are rediscovering frugal living, and we wanted to inspire them," says ­designer Paul Gower, who started the blog two years ago with Anastasia Ugorskaya, a painter. Squish also features glorious nature ­photography – just for the fun of it.

"Most of our ­readers are under 35, like me, and not earning huge ­salaries," says Grace Bonney, Design Sponge founder. "And we haven't traditionally been catered for." The blog has weekly DIY projects, trends and room makeovers with before and ­after shots, each one followed by readers' ­breathless comments: "OMG that kitchen is AMAZING!!!"

Ordinary readers showing off their extraordinary homes is ­Apartment Therapy's big draw – and it's hard not to become addicted. The blog also features the sort of useful ­advice – how to fill narrow spaces, how to hang frames, how to shop for vintage – you'd expect from its founder, Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, a former interior designer. "In these post-recession times, there is a strong desire for homes that feel ­authentic and ­personal," he says.

MSN has just launched a new womens lifestyle destination site called Glo. It is a partnership between MSN, Berman Braun and Hachette Filipacchi Media (publisher of Elle Decor). According to cnet, even though it was concevied before the tablet was announced it "will likely be one of the online media sites that shine best on the new Apple iPad." We took a look and saw some content from point.click.home as part of the mix, so the style of Elle Decor most likely will inform the decor part of Glo's editorial.

Like any other form of art and self-expression, interior decorating requires an intimate knowledge of color, line, shape, texture, perspective, and the other elements of design. Amateurs and professionals alike familiar with what constitutes a working, aesthetic room within certain budget, space, and stylistic guidelines have thousands – if not millions – of options open to them when it comes to finding something unique and personal. But creativity does not exist in a vacuum, and those in need of advice and ideas can simply head to the internet to discover exactly what they want. The following blogs offer up plenty for those who feel as if they hit a roadblock in their decorating, need some ideas to get started, or simply want a bit of a push when it comes to finding a product. Far more interior design blogs exist beyond this, of course, with each one offering something different to its reader base. Please use these listed here as excellent resources, but understand that the value of the unlisted others as well.